You already know the ending of The Spanish Princess, the show which charts the rise and fall of Henry VIII’s first wife. It doesn’t go well for Catherine of Aragon – though compared to later wives, she gets off lightly. But even with school history lessons spoiling the surprise, it’s a joy to watch this tale of Tudor ambition and intrigue from Catherine’s perspective, not least because the story turns on a thrilling and complex performance by Charlotte Hope as Catherine, and assembles a superb cast (including Laura Carmichael, Stephanie Levi-John, and Ruairi O’Connor) behind her. As Series 2 lands and Catherine gets her teeth into being a queen, Backstage sat down with Charlotte to find out about coming back to the role, how intense preparation is her secret weapon, and why acting is like tennis.
What has returning to the role of Catherine taught you?
It’s such a blessing when you do a second season of a job. The first season of The Spanish Princess, I was so heady, so full of nerves. I got cast about a week before we started making it, so to be honest, I was terrified the whole time. But then, coming back to Catherine this series, it felt like everything had settled in. She’s in my blood, in my body, I don’t have to try to be her. And I’m aware this might sound lame but I think the more you act, the better you get at acting. It’s a muscle. When I look back at my work from Season 1, I think I’m a better actor now. Well, I hope I am! With coming back to the role, you get to right some of the wrongs from your first attempt. And maybe do a load more wrongs. But that feels exciting.
How do you typically prepare for a role?
Basically, my whole M.O. for acting and life is just to try really, really hard. I do all the prep I possibly can, I read all the acting books, breakdown every scene, do all the actions, objectives and moments. All of that crap. I do it methodically because I am a big nerd. And because I feel like it gives me some kind of control. Then, when I get to work I can forget it all.
But to be honest, the prep is kind of my favourite bit. I have a couple of friends and we prep our scenes together and play around with them. When you get to filming stuff, those schedules are so fast that sometimes you’ve got 10 minutes at the end of the day to shoot a scene. Having spent so much time playing beforehand means I’m not trying to find it in a rush – there’s more freedom when I come to filming it. I can just see what comes.
How do deal with rejection?
Not very well. I know people say “‘some things are meant to be” but I think sometimes things can just be really shit. I do mourn the rejections. My usual process is to cry hysterically for a day, wake up the next morning and start afresh. It’s the only way I know how to do it. But I’m hurt because I really want those jobs. I’m kind of at peace with that process of mourning. Plus, being upset is not the worst thing in the world. It’s OK to feel sad about not getting a job that you really wanted – it’s a pretty normal human emotion. The point where I’m like: “Fuck it, I don’t care” is the point where I should probably not be doing this anymore.
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What’s the best thing you’ve learned from another actor?
I’ve been really lucky – I’ve worked with Ed Harris twice and with Victoria Hamilton. With both of them, it’s the kind of acting where I’m like: “I don’t know how you’re doing that.” I couldn’t see any of the nuts and bolts, so I mainly just learned that they’re really fucking good at acting, which probably isn’t very useful but it’s amazing to act opposite. There’s a saying along the lines of “acting is like tennis.” If you play with people who are better than you, it makes you better. I definitely think that’s true. And Ed and Victoria changed it up a lot – never just for the sake of it but because that’s what the impulse was. It was unpredictable but completely truthful all of the time, which meant I got to just react.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Try and find peace in the downtime. So often, I’ve made acting my only identity. And that has meant not being able to appreciate all of the other great things in life. It’s a hard lesson to learn but it’s important to have the confidence to know you will work again and just because you’re not working now doesn’t mean that like your life is worthless. I guess it’s what this pandemic has taught me. I had five years before this where I worked flat out and loved it. I’m a real workaholic. And suddenly, all got taken away from me. And I’ve had to find my identity as someone who’s not working. As actors, we will all go through periods of not working. I was really lucky with that run but there will be times in my life where I go six months or a year without working. And you have to be able to keep your head in that time.
The Spanish Princess Season 2 is out now on Starz in the US and Starzplay (via Amazon Prime) in the UK
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